Some time ago I heard Michael Savage reading a commercial for a men’s shaving product called Cremo and boy, did he sound excited.

Now because I shave regularly and, like most guys, occasionally nick myself, his message caught my attention and the name of the product stuck in my mind.

So later I’m walking down the aisle with all the shaving products and there amongst the cans of foams and gels is a bunch of Cremo. I pick up a tube and start reading some of the best advertising copy I’ve seen:  

Impossibly slick formula dramatically reduces nicks and razor irritation.

Can give you the closest, most comfortable shave and astonishingly smooth skin.

Invigorates skin with cooling peppermint, menthol, and tea tree oil

My right brain responds with, Hey, this sounds really good!  The left brain counters: But it’s more than twice the price of the stuff you’ve been using.

Yes, at nearly six bucks a tube it’s double the cost. But then I notice the “90-day supply” part – and the claim on the back that “one tube can outlast several containers of gels or foams.” So, with both sides of the brain in agreement, that tube of Cremo goes into the cart.

First time I use it, I’m impressed. And it occurs to me that the only part of a shaving product that matters is that thin film between the razor blade and the skin. All the foam that sits above the razor does nothing! The Cremo lives up to its considerable hype and now I’m hooked – as is my new son-in-law, thanks to his observant wife who heard me talking about how good it is and decided to pick some up for her husband. (Word-of-mouth rarely gets attributed to advertising, but here’s an illustration of how it happens.)

Turns out Savage wasn’t exaggerating in this case. Which makes me wonder if the Cremo people are as impressed with their radio advertising as I am with their product. So I contacted the Cremo Company to ask about their success with radio advertising and here’s what Fred Greene, their Director of Customer Care, had to say:

“(R)adio is what we’ve been doing for the past few years when we didn’t have “big” (in quotes–always relative) budgets and it has been so very valuable to our efforts to grow awareness and increase sales.  Of course, where you advertise and with whom matters, but we’ve had an amazing response, registered at checkout and in our Customer Service feedback.”

As a consumer and a radio guy, I think that’s cool. And I’m glad to have heard the ad and acted on it as, evidently, a lot of other listeners across the country are, too.

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Rod Schwartz backed into a lifelong career in radio advertising in 1973 in Springfield, Illinois. He became sales manager for the Pullman Radio Group in 1979 and served in that position until 2006. He continues to serve clients in the region as the stations’ senior account executive. Since 1991, Rod and his family have operated Grace Broadcast Sales, providing short-form syndicated radio features to radio and TV stations across the U.S. and Canada. An avid photographer, Rod shares some of his favorite images of the Palouse at PalousePics.com.